​The lawyer for InfoWars conspiracy theorist Alex Jones argued in a court filing that his client is “playing a character” and that his poisonous conspiracy theories (which range from ancient aliens and Nephilim to Pizzagate) are part of his act as a “performance artist,” not a truth-teller, according to news reports published yesterday. I wonder how many of his fans would be surprised to learn that Jones is not actually a rightwing truth warrior but instead now admits to being a false-flag fake-news crisis actor making things up for cash payments. It does make one wonder how many more of his ilk are intentionally engaged in profitable “performance art” vs. having true belief in the lies they inculcate among their devoted followings.

​After the U.S. presidential election in November, rightwing Nephilim theorists, clerics, and televangelist hucksters united in praising Donald Trump as God’s anointed leader. That lasted exactly as long as the mercurial hedonist stuck to conservative extremist policies. After his recent pivot toward more traditional Republican policies, the rightwing clerics are having conniptions. On TruNews, a show we have had occasion to mention for its Nephilim coverage, Rick Wiles, who believes we are living in the End Times, tried to look for a reason that his personal lord and savior, Donald Trump, has somehow failed to bring about the return of his other lord and savior, Jesus. He blamed the Jews.

On Jim Bakker’s show last week, Wiles expressed his shock and horror that trump bombed Syria, and he accused Trump’s daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared, both Jewish, of using “blasphemous” Jewish mysticism from the Kabbala, which he likened to witchcraft, to beguile and deceive Trump into betraying his retributionist promises:

She’s a Kabbala practicing, evil woman whispering evil things in the ear of her father. She’s going to the grave site of an old dead Kabbala practitioner and getting spirits telling her what to do … We have to pray against witchcraft in high places, witchcraft that plans to kill millions of people. … [Ivanka and Jared] are cleaning out the White House to surround President Trump with their Kabbala practitioners, and the only advice he is going to get will be from people who are evil. And the church is letting this happen.

​It's nice to know that the killing of “millions” is only an affront to God on occasion, when it aligns with conservative ideology. The anger of the clerics would carry more weight if they were uniformly opposed to violence and war instead of only conditionally and conveniently, based on the location of the war.

This did get me wondering, though, about Wiles’s discomfort with Kabbala, and I wondered if there is a connection between fear of Kabbala and Nephilim-panic. I found a weird sort of conflation of a number of ideas. For example, in Nephilim Resurgence (2012), Randy DeMain notes that Freemason Albert Pike considered Kabbala to be Luciferian. Nevertheless, DeMain tells us that “the practices of Kabbalah and the Mystery religion became established on Mount Moriah under the pretense of worship of God; it continues today through the Freemasons.” Obviously, he thought the Freemasons were Luciferian.

But it did bring up an interesting question about the connection between Freemasonry and Kabbala. According to the 2014 Handbook of Freemasonry put out by Brill, in 1726 a pamphlet called The Grand Mystery Laid Open made a connection been Masonry and Kabbala and is the oldest known text to do so. At times, Masonic literature has attempted to develop a close connection to Kabbala, but at other times, as in an 1880s Freemason’s Repository article, the Masons deny it:

That the Kabbalah as a system has some special interest for Freemasons will hardly be questioned. It may have no direct connection with Masonic science, but still there is a relation to be traced therewith; an agreement in many respects between the forms, methods and teachings of the two systems. Freemasonry as it exists to-day is a very practical institution, and cannot spare much time or thought for Hebrew mysticism and recondite lore. But it has respect for knowledge and truth, a friendly feeling for all seekers after the light, and though it may not endorse the fanciful theories of the Kabbalah, or claim any actual alliance with the system thus entitled, it can but regard favorably many of its ideas and theories.

Such disclaimers were not enough to stop a combination of anti-Semites and anti-Masons from proclaiming the whole confection to be Lucifer’s own attack on Christianity. A book called Freemasonry: The Synagogue of Satan by Leon Meurin followed the syllogism that Masonry was based on Kabbala, and Kabbala derives from Judaism, so because modern Judaism is Satan’s counterfeit of the True Faith, therefore Masonry is really the worship of Satan via Kabbala. This gets into some rather deep European anti-Semitism that is, frankly, a bit depressing. Across a series of European volumes in the nineteenth century, a variety of authors essentially argued that the Jews and Masons were in league with one another, that they were conspiring to bring about the Antichrist, and that Kabbala, among other shared articles of faith, was an instrument for promoting Satanic anti-Christian ends. The Pope himself, Pius IX, in Etsi Multa (1873), declared Freemasonry to be “the Synagogue of Satan” and blamed the Masons for the Vatican’s loss of temporal power following the conquest of the Papal States by the Kingdom of Italy:

Some of you may perchance wonder that the war against the Catholic Church extends so widely. Indeed each of you knows well the nature, zeal, and intention of sects, whether called Masonic or some other name. When he compares them with the nature, purpose, and amplitude of the conflict waged nearly everywhere against the Church, he cannot doubt but that the present calamity must be attributed to their deceits and machinations for the most part. For from these the synagogue of Satan is formed which draws up its forces, advances its standards, and joins battle against the Church of Christ.

​Regardless of the unsavory connection between our topic and anti-Semitism and anti-Masonry, what I found particularly interesting is that Wiles’s distrust of Kabbala isn’t shared among all evangelicals. There appears to be a divide between those who consider it an evil, Luciferian form of sorcery performed by wicked Jews and those who see it as a divine revelation from God and a valid path to understanding the mysteries of faith. That almost forces me to ask whether the driving force behind dislike of Kabbala isn’t mysticism and sorcery—something that didn’t bother popes, priests, and a variety of famous Christians—but rather a dislike of Jews. There is an added level of humor in that Wiles believes that the Jesuits have masterminded an anti-evangelical plot to destroy America by sending waves of illegal Catholic immigrants. Apparently everyone is conspiring against everyone else.

I can certainly see how Jones' lawyer claiming he's a "performance artist" makes sense as a legal strategy, but I don't see any reason why we should take that as a confession from Jones himself or assume that Jones doesn't believe the things he says. First, telling parents their children didn't really die in Newtown is beyond the pale of any "performance." Secondly, I'd point to Jones' strained apology to the owners of Comet Pizza, which wouldn't be any big deal if he was just making stuff up. And thirdly, Jones has been putting on this "performance" non-stop for twenty years, even when he wasn't on the radio (see Jon Ronson's Them). And he was doing the "performance" for many years without any guarantee that he would eventually become a national figure. In short, I think he believes what he says, and even if he says something outrageous in the moment, he's pretty good of convincing himself of it later.

Ah, but there's the rub! Technically speaking, your lawyer speaks for you and isn't supposed to be openly lying. So that leaves us with the unenviable task of trying to determine when Jones is being honest, and even if (as is likely) his lawyer is making up an excuse, it still puts him on record as claiming that his persona is fake. Of course, the kindest way to parse it is that he thinks the "facts" he spouts are true, and that it is just the angry, belligerent "character" that he plays that is fake.

Reply

Clete

4/17/2017 05:11:05 pm

There is an old joke about lawyers. What is the difference between a lawyer and a hooker. A lawyer will assume any position you want.

Reply

flip

4/18/2017 01:33:20 am

If I understand the legal concept of estoppel correctly, then the fun part is that now Jones has made the claim in a legal document, he can't back out of it in future court cases. "Oops, sorry Your Honour, we lied in that last suit, I really do believe this stuff and no I'm not a performance artist" won't go down well with any judge in the future. He's committed himself now, at least in legal proceedings, to calling himself a liar for profit.

The sad part is, I've seen countless comments spread among news and political channels that repeat the same invective: Jews own/run *everything*, they're behind all the world's problems, New World Order, blah blah blah. I don't remember this nonsense having such prevalence before, at least not in recent memory.

Reply

Ken

4/17/2017 01:08:43 pm

Check out "None Dare Call It Conspiracy", Gary Allen, 1971 - The bible for the John Birch society. It used to be online as a pdf and may still be. Same shit, different conspiracy.

Reply

bkd69

4/18/2017 01:59:17 am

Well, we didn't have facebook then, but much of the Obama era invective was recycled from the Clinton era, note for note. NET, a conservative satellite news network that was favored by Newt Gingrich, aired an endtimes prophecy show with much the same classical elements we've come to know and love, and Jack van Impe's eschaton still has yet to imannentize.

It was there on FIDOnet, and likely USENET, which archives would likely be an interesting resource to search for more on the subject.

But besides that, what you had were books and magazines, and amateur 'zines for propagation. Network effects are what really metastasized the material.

I knew all along that when Jones launched that six-minute diatribe against Piers Morgan he was just play-acting. Nobody could be that much of a self-important asshole in reality.

Reply

Americanegro

4/17/2017 05:22:25 pm

"I knew all along that when Jones launched that six-minute diatribe against Piers Morgan he was just play-acting. Nobody could be that much of a self-important asshole in reality."

Yet Piers Morgan has made a career of it.

Reply

Titus pullo

4/17/2017 08:09:22 pm

These guys always flame out. Jones, Beck and so on. They ride a wave when one side takes over and then implode. Im sure liberal sjw will get huge ratings and become very wealthy with right wing conspiracies the next few years. I do worry about trumps lack of any rational thought given he has gone all neocon/neo liberal. I dont give a hoot the religious virws of the arm chair warriers. I just want them out of power for good. Call me a good old conservative as i want sound money, free markets, limited govt, and a foreign policy of john Q adams not elliott Abrams. I guess thats anti semetic these days.

Reply

Lurker Un-Cloaking

4/17/2017 10:15:57 pm

During the Bush years, Sir, Jones had some popularity in the wilder precincts of the left. I was at the time a moderator on a very large left-oriented forum, and we were put to a lot of work taking down links to his 'prisonplanet' site, and materials copied from it, particularly when something like the London bombings or Katrina were current. It was delete on sight stuff, and we banned people who did it frequently. He made a fairly smooth transition in focus from Bush to President Obama in '08. One odd feature of this is that the sort of people his anti-Bush material was so popular with shifted along with him to conspiracist detestation of President Obama on the site. They did not go with 'birther' or 'secret Muslim' lines, but were perfectly happy with 'war-monger' and 'corrupt tool of Wall Street' and such.

I do think one of the differences between the 'liberal left' and 'movement conservatism' in this country is that the sort of thing Jones and people like him peddle receives more institutional encouragement within the latter than the former. You would be hard pressed to name more than one or two Democrats elected to Federal office who even went near indicating belief that, say, the Bush administration conspired to make the attacks of 2001 happen, or intended to, and even did, turn Katrina into mass murder. You could find on-line commentators saying so, certainly, but I know from personal experience this was strongly resisted on the larger sites. But it would not be difficult at all to find more than a dozen or two Republicans elected to Federal office who made quite clear they seriously entertained the idea that President Obama was not a citizen of the United States, that he was in fact a Muslim, even a Muslim who aligned with Muslim enemies of our country. These are not things mostly confined to people commenting on blogs and forums on the right. They are part of a major media network and even part of the Republican party itself by now.

Reply

Titus pullo

4/18/2017 07:50:04 pm

Good points. I often think the GOP took the easier route and went all in with social issues and at times over the top rhetoric as it was easier than actually acting on their supposed economic conservatism. In the end they love deficit spending just as much as the Dems and wilsonian empire interventionism. Heck bush was all I on the "ownership" society that helped drive the subprime fiasco. Believe me being a conservative libertarian is hard. Even when your guy or gal wins an election u still lose. I see the Exbank is back in action...alas...

At Risk

4/17/2017 09:34:21 pm

Kabbalah is at extreme odds with Christianity, as is Freemasonry. Of the three, only Christianity offers redemption (of a "fallen condition") and salvation--rather than self-improvement.

In this vein, does anyone know what the meaning may be of this special mark on a new form of "Marked X" I recently found, contemporaneous with the infamous Larsson Papers?

Does the Host mark--which when baked ends up on the upper right side of the X--symbolize the Holy Trinity, or a grain flair (such as seen in ancient Egypt), or possibly the 12th Hebrew letter, Lamed (with a numerical value of 30), or even Kabbalah in some way? I would like to know.

More specifically, did a Protestant denomination, or the Catholic Church in some unknown location in America in the 1880's, temporarily combine aspects of Freemasonry or Kabbalah (Judaism) with receiving the Host? Or, what does this symbol mean, if anyone can crack its meaning, for its time? I'm very curious to know. Thanks.

...not to mention what could be taken as two Templar crosses. Strange.

Reply

BigNick

4/18/2017 02:22:16 am

If you are referring to image 1/4, all the way to the left of the picture, that appears to be a flail and spear crosses. That would represent the beating of Jesus and then spearing his side while on the cross.

Reply

At Risk

4/18/2017 12:08:20 pm

That was good, BIGNICK. I should have thought of this, but I didn't see a leg of the X as a spear. I did notice a sort of dark mark opposite the flail, which is the spear-head...but I didn't make that connection, not realizing what the little mark was. Thanks. My curiosity has been satisfied here: This "flailed X" seems to be solidly Christian, without "outside" influence.

Oh look, the trolling Troll is trolling. Who do you think it sounds like most, Steve Stc. or Scot Remy. I would have added Time Machine in anyone of his various incarnations over the years, but his vulgarity factor was never this severe.

Reply

An Over-Educated Grunt

4/18/2017 08:13:45 am

No no no, let him talk. I want to hear more about "lick licking." So are you suggesting readers here like large blocks of salt, or what?

Reply

Jim

4/18/2017 09:04:59 am

Yup, and as far as "race provoking" goes, why, as soon as I read this blog I challenged my neighbor to a race around the block !

Reminds me of the old Tom Lehr song "National Brotherhood Week".
Oh, the white folks hate the black folks,
and the black folks hate the white folks,
all of my folks hate all of your folks
and everyone hates the Jew.
(circa 1965)

Christian interpretations of the kabbalah, alchemy and gnosticism (and/or neoplatonism), are the foundations of western esotericism. Various flavors of masonry have partook in this right from the official birth of Freemasonry in the early 1700s. Albert Pike was particularly enamored with Kabbalah and wrote about it incessantly in his study of the Scottish Rite degrees in his Morals and Dogma -- though Pike was almost entirely influenced by the theories and speculations of Eliphas Levi on this. In short, Freemasons -- in ritual and speculation, officially sanctioned or otherwise -- have for hundreds of years held the kabbalah in high regard and fundamentalist Christians have not failed to take notice. Some who rail against it may well have antisemitic intentions, while others are just drawing attention to the fact that it has been central to the occult for quite some time, and with masonry embracing it on many occasions this calls into question that organization as well.

On Jones: His wife, back in 2000 in Jones' Bohemian Grove documentary, is recorded saying on camera that Alex is an actor, and a good one at that. She was convinced of it back then and was in a unique position to know.

Reply

Joe Scales

4/18/2017 10:19:54 am

This shouldn't really come as a surprise to anyone. You don't think Rush Limbaugh first and foremost is an entertainer? It would be naïve to believe otherwise. I mean, this is a world where John Stewart is on the cutting edge of politics. Belief in what you're doing is often illusory, no matter what side you're on.

Reply

Kal

4/18/2017 03:02:31 pm

Comedy shows and fake news crosswed paths during the Obama years, with Comedy Central's The Daily Show eventually having more news commentary than comedy, and Fox News and CNN having attempts at more comedy and less news. Most of Faux News now is just performance art. None of them are serious. Not a one. They will claim up and down to be serious journalists with serious issues, but the only actual gravitas is in them having mental issues instead. Beck, Jones, O'Reilly, Hannity, and the rest, are all actors. Their bad comedy quirks aside, they are all hypocrites. It is the nature of the Greek word hypocrite. Limbaugh is there too. Even our comedian in chief, Trump, is nly an actor, and as soon as he gets bored, or mad, he will likely quit spectacularly.

But the evangelicals are right to a degree. We are living in the End Times, but anyone claiming they know when that end is, is misreading Scripture, which states 'no man shall know the hour of his return'. or in a later text, 'No man shall know the time of his second coming but only God knows that time'.. The end times have been going on for two millennia. It is not likely anytime soon these end of days truthers will cause His return to happen on their terms.

Anyone who thinks any politician is God's gift, is a fool.

This anti zionist weird nonsense is so 1940s of the hard right, considering they likely work for or work above the bankers rthat are ironically not all Jewish. It's ridiculous. Not everyone can be pegged into a hole like that. Can they even name three or four of these alleged NWO guys? Probably not.

So what if there are a lot of celebrities that happen to be Jewish. They don't make the same fuss about other nationalities. Well, they would about some.

Alex J is a troll. Has been since the 1980s.

Reply

Bob Jase

4/18/2017 06:27:11 pm

Great - now 'Witchy Woman' will play in my head whenever I see Ivanka.

Reply

Leave a Reply.

Author

I'm an author and editor who has published on a range of topics, including archaeology, science, and horror fiction. There's more about me in the About Jason tab.